In his closing statement, Perez’s lawyer countered that the inmates all had reason to “lie and fabricate” to get out of jail, noting that the case had no traditional evidence like DNA.

“It can’t simply be the stigma, that the allegations [are] enough, because then everybody would be guilty,” said attorney Kenneth Montgomery, telling jurors the feds wanted them to “convict simply because they said so and because of the stigma of these allegations.”